Editor Myths: All Editors Do the Same Work

When aspiring authors hear about book editors for the first time, often what comes to mind is the red ink corrections your high school English teacher splattered all over your essays. You might believe that all editors serve a general purpose. But this view of editing is far too narrow, for if all that good writing took was proper grammar, punctuation, and syntax, all of our English teachers would be published authors with six-figure contracts.

While some editors do specialize in cleaning up spelling and grammatical mistakes, this actually refers to a particular kind of edit: The Copy Edit. In fact, many professional book editors don’t even touch grammar or spelling.

So, if book editors fulfill several functions for authors, then what are those roles?

The Fact

I like to picture the different book edits like a funnel with several filters. At the very top, we dump our raw manuscript into the editing funnel with all its warts. Before it continues down the funnel, it must pass through the first editing filter. This first filter is called:

The Developmental Editor

Your manuscript is raw. You have a story, but you need to ensure you have solid characterization, plot, and setting. The story needs to flow naturally and smoothly. Do you have plot holes? Inconsistencies? The Developmental Editor will find them.

This editor sifts through the book as a whole. Just like you would with any project, before you can tackle the small details, you must look at the big picture, and a good Developmental Editor will make darn sure that your story is solid and engaging before readers ever see it. This edit comes highly recommended for new authors, but the Developmental Edit is also common for experienced writers as well.

Once you’re finished with this step, your book passes through the Editing funnel’s second filter:

The Line Editor

In the Line Edit we’re getting smaller in scope, looking at the line by line rather than the book as a whole. Sentence structure, the flow from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph, and ensuring there is engaging dialogue are the hallmarks of a good Line Editor.

Did you read the above sentence twice in order to understand it? You’re not alone. It’s a terrible sentence (haha!). A good Line Editor will pick up on these issues and make the required changes. The Line Edit is all about clarity and making good writing great.

While it is always recommended that you receive a Line Edit for your manuscript, a self-published author could consider skipping this step to save on their bottom line.

We have one final filter to pass through in the Editing Funnel before we have a polished and ready-to-read book. This, of course, is the Copy Edit.

The Copy Editor

Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty. The Copy Editor will go through your book with a fine-toothed comb and find the grammar, punctuation, spacing, syntax, and technical mistakes found within your book. This is the high school English teacher edit, except a good Copyeditor won’t give you a bad grade—they’ll provide you a clean and polished book ready for publishing.

If you skip the Copy Edit, then your book will struggle. That’s really the bottom line. This is the edit that every successful author in history has received. If you choose to ignore it, then you’re staring failure right in the face and you might as well throw your manuscript on top of the mountain of books that never found a readership.

Finally, do all editors perform all three of these essential edits?

Editors typically specialize in one or two, and they are typically not done at the same time. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but regardless you will go through several iterations of your manuscript as your work through the Editing Funnel, and each different edit comes with its own purpose.

If you’re unsure what edit(s) your book requires (this is very common), I will provide you the advice that I always provide my clients before they work with me: Have a low-cost book assessment performed before you receive any editing!

If you’ve read any of my posts, you’ve probably seen this advice before. Why? Because it’s essential in saving you money and saving me an awkward email that reads something like:

“Hello Ms. Author. I’m about halfway through your Copy Edit, and I’ve noticed that your plot has come to a standstill, your character motivations are all over the map, and your setting has gone from Middle Earth to Star Trek in the space of a few pages. You’ve paid for a Copy Edit, but I think this book requires a deep Developmental Edit before I can continue.”

Ouch. Double triple ouch. That’s an email I never want to write again, and it’s certainly not one you ever want to see in your inbox. But I digress.

Not all editors do the same work. Find out what type of edit you need using a Book Assessment, and then find your right fit. Wondering where you can get this elusive, cost-effective assessment? Look no further: